Psalm 111

This morning, I came across a psalm I am not so familiar with. Buried in between a few of the classic psalms of 103 and 119, this reflection of David caught me off guard over my morning coffee. It starts with a familiar verse that Jesus quotes in Luke 20. "Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool". But Psalm 111 ends with an unexpected twist, and it made me stop and think, "Wow, will God actually do that?". Take a look for yourself.

The Lord is at your right hand;
he will shatter kings on the day of his wrath.
He will execute judgement among the nations,
filling them with corpses;
he will shatter chiefs*
over the earth.
He will drink from the brook by the way
therefore he will lift up his head.


*or "the head"

Psalm 11:5-7

He will judge the nations filling them with corpses? He will shatter kings? Yes. Yes He will. How can a God of love and mercy do this you might ask? After all, our culture loves to emphasize how good God is, how much He loves us, and how He wants to bless us if we follow Him. These things are all true, yet I was reminded this morning that our God is not just a being who exists to give love and blessings, but the King of all Kings who hates wickedness and will destroy it. It is difficult to picture the nations filled with corpses. But as or world continues to choose to live in and worship sin, they leave God no choice. I think we think that because of the cross, God will never act like He did in the Old Testament again. Oh, how wrong we are and how misguided our view of God is if that is how we see Him. A God bound by the cross to never pour out wrath again? No, a God who gave His life on the cross so He wouldn't have to pour out His wrath on everyone, but only those that reject Him.

I am reminded by this psalms of how I want to be on God's side. I want to live my life in a way where I hate sin as much as He does yet choose to love my enemies, even if it's at the expense of my life. God is throned high above all kings and principalities and has the power to destroy them with a thought. Yet He chooses to to give us grace after grace, in hope that we might turn form our sin to Him. His grace will not last forever. I pray that we are not one of those corpses in the street the nations, but a son or daughter in the presence of the King reigning in His kingdom forever.

Day 1

We haven't done this for a while, as you may have noticed from the date of the last post. Hopefully my lack of discipline in blogging and writing doesn't show in this blog. Though I think it might.

Its one of those dreary, gray, rainy mornings. My wife is asleep, as is our baby girl. I am left to a quiet living room, the rain, and my thoughts.

Yesterday marked a monumental day in the history of the United States. June 26th, 2015 will be remembered as a step toward world peace and equality for millions of Americans. It will also be remembered as the day our government took another step towards validating sin and fell further from God for millions of others. So, this morning is the first morning that millions of LBGT American's can wake up being confident of their country's support and legal backing of their sexual choices.

There have been a lot of opinions going around social media in the last 24 hours. Outspoken Christian leaders have called the Church to stand for biblical marriage, and they should. People are upset, appalled, and humiliated that our country has strayed so far from the biblical values that had such an influential impact on its founding, and they should be.

However, in light of what has happened, I actually see this as a good thing for the Church in America. For 250 years, the Church in this nation has had religious freedom and a government that has been an advocate for its citizens to value Christian morals. Only in the last 50 years have the tides began to turn. We have had so much freedom for so long, with no external pressure to stand for what we believe in. Now we have a little pressure. And that's a good thing. Our faith was founded on the blood of martyrs, who had to stand for Christ in an immoral society that was so bad we shouldn't even compare our America to it. The Roman Empire wasn't even in the same league as our nation. Emperor Nero would burn Christians alive at the stake outside of his palace just to light up the royal grounds at night. How is that for immoral?

Yet I don't want to minimize the Supreme Court's ruling yesterday. It is now "wrong" to disagree with the homosexual or transgender lifestyle. Soon it will become a hate crime. So there lies many questions as to what this all means for churches and christian organizations. Will we lose our tax-exempt status? Will the government shut our doors if we refuse to marry LBGT couples? If we publicly disagree with the LBGT lifestyle do will we risk being fined or worse? We will find out many of these answers in the coming years, probably sooner. But whatever happens in the realm of legality for the Church, we still have a choice. Will we stand for Jesus when it is not popular to? Will we advocate for biblical marriage to our coworkers, neighbors, and friends when it isn't an accepted way of thinking anymore? To stand for biblical marriage is to stand for the gospel. Now we have such an opportunity to share why we value marriage between a man and woman. We value this institution because we love Jesus.

Now is the time to stand. Will we have social pressure to compromise our faith? Yes. Should we be surprised? No. 2 Timothy 3:12 tells us to expect persecution. Our governments full support of Christian values is now over. We disagree on a few critical biblical issues. History has showed us that when the Church is persecuted, in grows exponentially. Let that be our prayer as an American Church, that the Lord would use any persecution to grow us to love Him and be more obedient to the gospel than we have ever been before.

Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, and not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God. For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake, engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have.

Philippians 2:27-30

New Year, New Transitions

Personal Update

For us, this new year will bring a few big transitions. They will bring some change to our lives, but for the better. This month we will be moving into our first home and welcoming our baby daughter into our family. We have been renting an apartment downtown since we have been married, but with the upcoming addition to the family, we needed a little more space. Our new home will be located in New Philadelphia, about a block a way from one of the girls discipleship houses. Whitney is really excited to be in walking distance to the girls house, making it easier to spend time with them. Whitney is due on February 6th, and we are planning to move in to our house by mid January. So, not much time in between, but just enough.

I have spent the last year interning at my church with our pastoral staff. Our church is about 25 minutes away from our town, out in the country. It has been growing over the past few years and this fall reached a point where we are maxing out space on Sunday mornings. Our staff really believes in developing leaders from within the church, which is why they asked me to do an internship with the pastoral staff. So, the opportunity arose for the church to branch out to a new location. Conveniently enough, there are quite a few people that commute from New Philadelphia to Countryside Chapel. So the staff decided to locate the branch in New Philly. Our church model is a little different from the typical church plant. Think of it this way. Instead of going to 2 services in one building on a Sunday morning, we are adding a second service, but it will be in a different location. Same leadership. Same Elders. Same pastors. Same church.

But 2 locations. My role at the New Philly location will be the branch pastor and administrator. The rest of the staff will rotate in between the two locations for preaching and shepherding. I feel so grateful to be apart of a team that's committed to the discipleship of the congregation. We are starting the branch in a movie theater down town. We are excited about the location and hope to see lost people encounter Jesus for the first time.



Ministry Updates
As Off The Wall grows, so will our roles. During our staff retreat we talked a lot about how we disciple and how we teach classes. We will be changing to a different model in the fall. We are finding that this younger generation likes much more mobile environments. Shorter time periods, different faces, less duration. So instead of having all classes every week for 9 months, we will have a variety of topics that are taught for weeks at a time by different members of the staff, with a few foundational classes that go throughout the year. Whitney and I will add a few more responsibilities to our roles later this year, helping Don recruit and fundraise for the ministry.

We are really looking forward to these new transitions. Being a pastor at the church will add more to my week, but I have been spending a lot of that time training and learning from the pastoral staff already. It is a privilege to work for the Lord and we are grateful to be able to be used by Him. God has blessed us greatly with a home, a baby, and a community that wants to follow Christ and we are thankful for His goodness in our lives.

white for harvest

Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest

Evangelism has always been hard for us. For me, (Josh) it is for many reasons. 1, I naturally just don't like talking to strangers. When I am in public, I tend to want to get whatever task I am doing done as quickly as possible. I am not one for small talk or for the awkward comments cashiers tend to make when it is taking longer than usual for your credit card to work. When I hear something like "Oooo, they need to replace this machine because Darla spilled coffee on it", I typically smile, force out a chuckle, and hope to God that the machine works so I can get the heck out of line and be done with that uncomfortable interaction. 2, I would much rather share Jesus with someone I have befriended. Someone I know, that knows me. I tend to feel like giving a gospel presentation to a complete stranger is like a hit-and-run. What happens to them, I think? Does anything actually change in their life? 3, I generally assume that people do not want to hear the best news in the Universe. 4, evangelism is awkward. 5, I am afraid of what people will think of me.

While all of these feelings are valid, they are all excuses. That's right. All 5 reasons I don't like sharing the love of God with people are ultimately selfish excuses that I make, which I end up using to validate and justify my inaction and disobedience to the Holy Spirit. Like we shared in earlier posts, the Lord has been convicting us of how sharing our faith is not optional. Jesus says the fields are white for harvest, and all we must do is look up to see them.

Two weeks ago my wife and I and some of the Off The Wall students partnered with Souled Out International, an evangelistic ministry, and went to Cleveland to share our faith with people on the streets. We ended up spending most of our time in Tower City Mall, engaging with all sorts of people. For all of us from Off The Wall, this was an initially intimidating, but an extremely rewarding experience. We really appreciate the guys from Souled Out, because they do evangelism in a way that is biblical. There are no tracks, no turn or burn signs, and no trying to make converts. I think God can obviously use anything He wants for His good (Romans 8:28), but I just don't see a lot of the methods of evangelism we see in our culture done in Scripture. When Jesus preached the gospel, He did it out of compassion and love for people. He wanted people to be redeemed and their relationship with the Father restored. When Jesus healed, one of the reasons He did is because He had compassion. The Lord used the guys from Souled out to open my eyes to what sharing the love of God is really about. We spent the afternoon in Cleveland praying for people, engaging in dialogue about important life questions, and sharing our testimonies of how Jesus changed our life. There are a few stories I could share, but I will share one interaction I had in particular that has still stuck with me.

I was walking with my wife and one of the OTW students in the Tower City mall by its entrance. My wife and the student were a few paces ahead of me and were asking the Holy Spirit if there was a specific person He wanted them to talk to. I passed a man in the corner leaning against a post. he was a little older than me, had a little extra weight on his frame, and had a red hoodie on. He looked like he had some Latin in him. I noticed his sleeve of tatooes when I got closer. I felt a nudge tell me to "talk to him". So I went over, introduced myself, and asked him if there was anything that I could pray for him. He looked at me, almost perplexed that I had asked him that specific question, and said, "Actually I am having a really bad day. Something happened between my mom and sister and I, and they both packed their things, and left the state". He let me pray for him and as I did, he began to tear up. When I was done, I told him that I didn't think it was a coincidence I felt God nudge me to talk with him. He told me he was catholic, believed in God, and tries to be a good person. I shared with him the assurance of salvation through Christ and encouraged him that God wanted him to know that He loves him very deeply, knows exactly what was going on between his mom and sister, and cares enough to send a stranger (me) to tell him that.

Jesus said 2000 years ago that the fields are white for harvest and all we have to do is lift our eyes to see it. That's all I literally had to do on that Saturday afternoon in Cleveland at tower city mall. I would encourage you to ask the Holy Spirit to interrupt your day. I can't tell you how many times I have felt Him tell me to talk with a stranger and my response was a flat out"no, and I just continued on with my day. It is when we act on His prompting that we may see something miraculous and reap the harvest of what someone else has labored for.

Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest. Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”

John 4:35-38







JN

answered prayer in a deli

My husband and I have been on a journey since being married. One of the greatest privileges we have shared together is seeing God work through us and move as we pray for people and specific things. I keep a prayer journal of my own to write down the things I pray for. I do this so I can look back to see what prayers have been answered and the day and time I prayed them. We have had the joy several times while we've been married to look back through my journal and to see what God has done. I wanted to share with you just one of these answers to prayer. This past August I had a job at a deli here in New Phili. It was not a very environment to be in and I very possibly was the only believer there. I was not sure what I should do, whether I should stay and build relationships, or to go back to the coffee shop I loved. After a lot of prayer with my husband, I ended up leaving my job.

on Sept 1, 2013 I wrote:
"Lord, I want to continue in prayer for my boss and all of those I worked with. First I pray though, that You will bring in a strong believer who loves people and who will enjoy the workers and connect with them. God, I pray they will love their work at the Deli and will see it as a way to make disciples. Until these believers come, and after do they come, open all of the workers eyes and hearts of those working there to You. Awaken them to their desperate need of You. Do whatever it takes in their life to get them and to bring them home to You."

A few weeks ago two of the students from Off the Wall got hired at the deli. One was hired first for a week. For the first week, she would come home drained because of the environment. A week or so later, the other girl got hired. Since then, they have been working together and already changing the environment. They are bringing the joy of Christ in with them and it is contageous.

I just wanted to point out a couple of things first. Without realizing this while I was actually writing the prayer above, notice that I said "that You will bring A strong believer in.." I made it singular. One strong believer to come in. I didn't notice until today that when I continued, I made my plea plural. "I pray THEY will love THEIR work...until THESE BELIEVERS come..." I prayed for multiple believers to come. First one, and then others to follow.

God completely answered my prayer. I have been so encouraged that God has answered my prayer and is really intentionally putting believers in this environment all for His glory. This Sunday morning, I was so excited and proud to hear that these two girls that got hired have become the bosses favorite. He loves when they come in because of their joy and encouragement. Also, one shared with me this morning that they got to have a great conversation with a coworker which lead into really getting to share their hearts for Jesus.

Last night one of the students took my husband and I out for dinner. Our waitress happened to be one of the girls who was working with me before I quit the deli. My husband and I knew God was at work when this specific waitress happend to be the one to take care of us while there were over 20 waitresses working that night, and 50 people on the waiting list, in a completely full restraunt. We just happened to come at the perfect time to be seated in her section. We recognized eachother immediately. We both were eachothers favorites at the deli and actually quit at the same time. I have a had a few conversations with her about my faith and how I even ended up in Ohio, but I could tell she did not know Jesus. So last night, I wanted to take up the opportunity to share with her. Sadly, I did not get to talk to her. She was very busy and only stopped at our table for a few short and quiet moments to clear off the table, but I left a note to her and left it ontop of our tip sharing the gospel. I am sad that I didn't get to share with her in conversation, and maybe I should have tried harder to engage in a conversation, but I am so glad that I still had the opportunity to share with her in some small way after not seeing her for about 6 months. I want to try to come more often and see if I may get so lucky to have her as a waitress again.

So, I believe God is on the move in this deli. I can't help but get so excited that I know that people coming in are going to hear the gospel. I love how God answers prayers and how we get the joy of seeing our prayers answered. I know I did not share any names of the workplace or the people's names, but I do ask that you will be praying. Lift up the off the wall girls in your prayers, that they will be bold and courageous for Jesus. That they will share the gospel without shame. Pray for their coworkers and the relationships they are building. Pray that they will continue to have favor in their workplace and that you will soften their coworkers hearts to recieve Jesus into their hearts as their Savior. Also, pray for the waitress. That she will recieve Jesus Christ as Lord, and become a disciple of Him. Lastly, please continue to be in prayer for Josh and I as we hope to grow in obedience and passion to share the gospel with all we encounter without fear but in great boldness and love.

WN

brought to rememberance

"I will remember the deeds of the Lord, I will remember your wonders of old. I will ponder all your work, and meditate on your mighty deeds." Psalm 77:11

Through the different seasons of life, I am finding how desperately I must apply the pure truth of this text to me. Through each season, we must record all the beauty that God has done and is doing with deep praise and adoration. I find myself now in a season where it is so vital to remember the times when God revealed Himself to me. He did in such a way that I could never deny His love and the depth of care He has for me. He uses times from the past where He clearly moved mightily to remind me He is faithful. In remembering those times, He grows my confidence that I am His. That I am one of His sheep, that He calls me by name, and I know His voice!

When He moves, take note. Write it down, record how He is moving. I promise you, even when you feel the farthest from Him, you will still see the glimpses of His presence and how He is acting and showing you that He is still there. He is with you and will never leave. You see His great faithfulness and consistency while He is drawing you closer to Him.


WN

He is faithful, good, and just

The Christmas season is upon us and our little town is in full swing of all that the season entails: icicle lights hanging from buildings, a nativity scene on the main square, Walmart adorned with green and red sales tags all over the store and the downtown lamp posts lit up with snowflakes...and during this special time of the year I find myself truly learning for the first time, a lesson I should have learned when I was 17.

Last night my wife and I were driving home from a Christmas Party for our work. Before I got married this summer, many people told me that for only a woman would I change some of my stubborn boyish habits that I should have out grown once I graduated high school: my horrid cave man like manners, an unawareness of myself in relation to things around me causing them to break, an ingrained habit to do most things 100 miles an hour, and my proud, stubborn, New England attitude behind the wheel of a car.

During the whole process of dating, engagement, and marriage, godliness has been a major matter close to my heart. I have been praying for godliness in all areas of my life, and God has been faithful to show me where I need to grow. I understand godliness as simply a devotion to have the attitude of Christ in all circumstances. And as a disciple, of course I want to be a godly husband and leave a godly legacy for my children. I feel there is an opportunity to grow in godliness every day. Thankfully, God has used my wife to help me grow in some of those immature habits I mentioned. And this Christmas season, The Lord is really showing me that I drive like a selfish, impatient New Englander. More than that, its not just the way I drive that is ungodly, but it is me. When I get behind the wheel, I become easily irritated, impatient, a zealously-haughty complainer and completely me focused. It doesn't help that I grew up in an area of the country, (New England), where arrogance and pride rise from earth each morning like hot mist from city sewer grate. I am serious. I really believe there is a deep seeded pride rooted in generations of people in that area of the country. Its funny now, living in Ohio, thinking about the New England prideful mentality. You can even see it in the term "New England". Its like we think we are a separate part of the United States. As you cross the border from New York to Massachusetts you will commonly hear things like "Well get used to it, you are in New England now". Massachusetts drivers are so selfish, people have dubbed them driver's "Massholes".

All that being said, that is no excuse. My selfishness comes out when I drive. I am ungodly behind the wheel. So the last few weeks, this has really come out, and finally I have started working on it. Instead of flooring it on yellow lights I stop, and realize an extra 30 seconds out of my day will not kill me. In Ohio, most people drive under the speed limit and are actually self-less. So this "slow and steady, I will get there when I get there" mentality just escalated my "me-first" attitude. So instead of letting nice courteous people annoy me, I have tried to become more like one of them. But last night, despite my realization that I need to change, I feel like the Lord just put a seal on it and said "Josh, this is it. You need to love Me when you drive. And you have a family now".

We were coming home from the Christmas party and there is a two lane road in Amish country between our work and the town we live. We had a great night talking with our co workers during dinner and were thinking back to our conversation. I noticed a local cop parked off the the left. There are only two or three cops in that little town and this section of the road rarely patrolled. So we passed him, and he just stayed parked. Everything was normal. My mind started wondering back to dinners conversation and my eyes were on the road, but my foot was on the gas pedal. You can guess what happened next. I have it in my mind that this road is 65 mph, but it is really 55. So I sped up to my usual 65-70 range. A state police car on the other side of the road passes us, pulls a U-turn and pulls me over.

Speeding Ticket.

After a great night with my wife and co workers. After a trying to be a more godly driver. During the Christmas season!


But all that doesn't matter. God is just. He is merciful, but He is just. I needed that ticket. Yes, I could have slowly gotten better and changed. But I needed a harsh reminder. I needed to be disciplined. There were many times the past few years I could have been pulled over and should have been. This time I wasn't even trying to speed. But again, God needed to teach me this lesson. He knew a $hundred and change ticket plus a jump in our insurance would get my full attention.

So all this being said, I am thankful. Of course I wish I didn't have to pay the cost, but I am thankful I have a good Father who knows what I need, and gives me what I can handle. I am thankful it was not an accident that it took to get my attention again(that has happened before). I am thankful that He answered my prayer, is making me godly, is giving me applicable sermons illustrations that make me look foolish and Him great, but most of all, that is a faithful, good, and just Father that loves me.


Merry Christmas

JN